The Ridgeway
Four days out and running low on water, but he didn't care. He stopped at the crest of the hill to catch his breath. It was full dark, but his eyes adjusted to the low light and...
Short stories
Original short stories about the end of the world.
>INDEX READY // 76 ENTRIES // LAST UPDATE 2025-09-16
Traveller's Unrest
"Ale's going off," he shouted into space across the empty inn. Beric swilled the last mouthful. There was a sickly sweet taste to it, and it was flat, almost syrupy. Alinor didn...
Catch and Release
$18,000 per catch. Less if they're incomplete. Nothing if the head comes off, for obvious reasons. $18,000. More money than most people earn in a year, and all being well, we ca...
Like Wildfire
The riots were three blocks over and the power was cutting in and out, so she packed her camping gear and drove hard and fast out of the valley, leaving the smog and concrete be...
Twenty-Seven Minutes
In this line of work, you think about death every day. You have to. You sign the waivers and the non-disclosures, you take out the insurance policies and attend the procedural b...
The Danger Is Still Present, in Your Time, as It Was in Ours
They watched the kid dig with manic intensity. The pile of dirt next to him had grown to maybe half his height. Some of the soil would tumble back into the hole with every frant...
The Gates of Morbach
Chains and ropes creaked on the other side of the great gate. Beyond, Grade could hear the sounds of life and livestock, mingling with the rain. He could hear the squawk of poul...
Lakeside Doomsday Cult
I step through the door clearly marked FIRE EXIT and the cold December air wraps around me like an icy blanket. I fumble in my jacket pocket for a beat-up pack of Camel Lights,...
The Sea Lords Script
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: After nearly a decade of analysis, the Linguistics Department of Gabonium University cracked the enigma that is the Sea Lords Script and presents this report...
Body Parts Jewelry Store Man
“I’ll take five diamond earrings,” the lady from the fourth encampment north said. “Five pairs of diamond earrings?” I asked. “Yes, five pairs, and I want them all fingertip.” “...
Fourteenth Birthday Chat
“Hear that si–” …lence, boy? That’s right, the generator’s down. It won’t come back up, my boy. No use trying. No parts for it, even if we could figure out what’s wrong. Hardly...
The Poppies' Secret
“Ada, will you sit down?” Terra gives her best impression of a scowl up at me, though to my eye she looks more like a puppy that’s about to sneeze. I shrug and make a show of in...
Teacup Werewolves
“What you have to understand is this: Some wolves are smaller than you.” He paused. “Some are bigger.” It wasn’t just that he spoke slowly, although I finally understood why Sou...
The Chosen Ones
As we wake up, our first glance is towards the giant floor to ceiling window. We anxiously rake the blackness until we spot it, still there, hanging on. The orb. Our sigh of rel...
Assyria the Beautiful
There is a Rand McNally Histomap taped to the front of my closet, a map of human history that spans nearly floor to ceiling. Every morning, I read a new headline circa 1000 to 5...
Hey, Are You Awake?
I’ve been pregnant less than a week when the earthquake hits. Dogs look like bathroom rugs on the side of the road. My house is caved in like a witch’s hat that was stepped on....
Digging
Fire took out the whole damn block down to the foundations, but not our place. Nope. Of course not. I couldn't be that lucky, could I? Three houses left standing for as far as I...
The Supermarket
Anders is crying. His face remains composed, not a single twitch, but his eyes are shining. All around her people are sniffling, some even sobbing and making a scene, but it’s A...
Happy New Year
Michael grinned widely to see the little girl in the pink puffa jacket, bouncing as she ran towards him, probably more vertical motion than forward movement. He squatted to be o...
Ground Zero
Dawn. Huntington. The high pitch squawk of a large crow interrupts the still air, as it picks at rubbish strewn over the pavements. A few moments later, the bird takes flight, f...
The Old People's Pied Piper
Three days after he had disappeared we still believed we would find grandpa. His small apartment in the retirement home became our temporary headquarters. We took shifts, the gr...
The Green Priest
Halvar sheltered under the branches of an old willow tree, hidden from sight by a thick curtain of fronds that trailed the river’s surface. His canoe rose and fell with the curr...
Vodka and Coke
‘Ah, Doug,’ the Hawaiian said, shaking his head as he unbuttoned the tobacco leather sheath that held the knife at his waist, ‘This is going to sting.’ Doug’s eyes bulged. ‘No,...
Mirage
My child’s hand pulls me toward the horizon, points. I pause and stare. Tongue thick in my mouth, scraping against my teeth, I rasp out the word, “Water.” I long for the sheer w...
Dance up the Sun
I got out of bed, and shivered. Edith said it was the middle of April, and even I remembered April being warmer than this. The clock had run down in the night, even though I'd w...
The Diggers
I am a digger. I'm one of a thousand and we were born to be diggers. We were bred into darkness, with soil in our mouths and hands already curled to clutch at chisel and spade....
The Ocean, The Monster
The ocean is a monster, Georgie told Judy when he watched her throw a sand dollar into the water. How many is that now? he asked. Judy sighed, looked to the sky and counted. Twe...
This Is Not an Exit
The café is cold and blanketed masses huddle over steaming cups of weak tea. The bomb blast took out the windows, even in this hamlet miles from the target. Those of us who stil...
Remains
I had to go out. That meant a full hazardous materials suit to avoid the possibility of airborne contagion. That diagnosis was the last full piece of information I had before Ce...
Phantasmagoria
Space split from time, the future began pulling away from the present, and tents appeared. The BBC muttered ‘incredible…’ and went off the air. Across the ocean, American report...
After the Deluge
endings The first of the buildings fell today. The salt had eaten away at the foundations, the water churned and crashed into the walls, until it buckled under the weight of six...
After I Watched Her Die
When the bright green light left her eyes, I had no idea of the pain that would come after. I held her body in the forest, on Planet GJ 357 in the Hydra constellation. Her left...
Death Sentence
It’s early evening when you finally get home. You look at the place where your rear view mirror used to be and wonder whether you should get it fixed soon. After all, you’ve man...
The Cabin
It’s the silence that gets to you. Omnipresent and suffocating, it envelops the whole clearing like a fog, covering this corner of the woods in a cloak as thick as the ashen clo...
The Gentle Man
The emptiness of the library was as unsettling as always. Most of the books lining the shelves around her had been written by academic men, a seemingly extinct breed. She made h...
The Last Cherry Orchard
Bastian sat heavily in the angle formed by tree trunk and crust. He pushed a hand through the topsoil, and cried at the unnatural chemical balance revealed in the narrow, pigmen...
After the Storm
It has been one month since the solar storm and it doesn’t look like the power is coming back on. This evening, like every other evening, auroras hang in the sky, robbed of thei...
The Confession
To start at the start, I suppose we must go back to the hospital. The hospital is another world in another world. It lives by its own code, its own set of rules. It is a leper i...
The Island
Dull grey foam swallows the boulders at the cliff base. The foam, cliff and sky all fade into one, grey on grey on grey. So this is it, is it? This tiny fucking rock in the midd...
The Stars Are All the Same
The waiter took one look at the Countess of Wessex and turned tail. Tonight, Wessex had tried to kiss two waiters, the cook she had brought over to compliment on his beef bourgu...
Suspirium Viridae
That summer was so hot the eucalyptus tree in the back garden dripped oil, making the whole neighbourhood smell disinfected and clean. I used to lie underneath it after school,...
Osprey
Date: June 3rd, 262 P.B. – 10:13 PM Officer: Corporal Victor Freeman – Alaska Bureau of Investigations Fresh, clean paper. Ages before us, people replaced it with small digital...
Attending the Mote
Awesome meets Vicar’s link, travels deep into the Shog’s past, and gleans the stones. Awesome’s activity is represented in Vicar’s mind as a rotating red orb. This is the Third...
Before the Bomb
As I study her sitting half-undressed on my cot, I realize I recognize her from before the bomb. Or I think I do. I think I recognize people all the time, as I stare into their...
You Skyscraper Kind
A long time ago, someone scrawl’d the story of the dust men on the fire escape wall. It say dust men come an’ take our wives an’ children. They come sayin’: ‘You skyscraper kind...
The Balmoral Revenants
I saw them come for the bench, the one presented to Ruth on her retirement from teaching. I'd got used to staying up late and taking a peek at the grounds from behind the curtai...
Where It All Began
I stifled a yawn as I pulled up in front of my last customer of the day and turned off the engine. I sold cosmetics door to door and had been on my way home when my boss called...
Lakewall
Carrie Michaels reclined in the dry dirt of the lakeside, watching water spiders skitter across the green-tinted water. Just below the surface, silvery minnows shot back and for...
Jacob and Katy and the Building People
“We really shouldn’t go near that place,” Katy said as Jacob led her toward the dark building in the middle of the abandoned village. “You know who lives there.” Jacob nodded bu...
Tramp the Dirt Down
Every serial killer should have a good, reliable, durable shovel. Even accidental serial killers. My shovel, Betty, was under my nose the entire time festering at the back of th...
The Perfect Storm
“We opened the Gates of Heaven with pouring water. And We caused the Earth to gush forth springs, so the water met according to the decree which has been ordained.” — The Qu’ran...
The Sleepers
After we burned the beds in the backyard, I watched Bruce tie a rope around his wife to keep her from wandering off and falling asleep. After three days awake, he wasn’t the onl...
Mooners
NOT EVEN AN HOUR INTO MARE IMBRIUM’S two-week-long night, Commander Gordon Gooch III was snoring through the end of the world. Yes, that Gooch: Fumbler of First Contact and curr...
CopyKat
I’m proud to be a CopyKat. No, scrub that crap. To be proud, I’d have to care about what you tiny wittle mousies think. I don’t. You can scurry round your make believe cages, ru...
There Is No Happy Ending for Us
Micah looked up and saw the contrast of blues on the horizon. Paula was beside him, fiddling with a shell that she had found in the sand, between her fingers. They were sitting...
Link State
The helicopter was a patchwork of mottled camouflage contrasting with the flat black sections where it had been repaired. A light wisp of black smoke trailed from the engine, di...
The Warming Sickness
The year is 2096. The setting could be anywhere. You won't be alive then. Read on. On Tuesday morning her husband went into town on his bicycle. His boss had messaged to him to...
For the Taking
The boy scout looked clean, even his hair. The jeans were worn but clean and the brown scout shirt almost new. Everything about him looked like Midwestern clean cut youth. Excep...
Awakening
I stand in the elevator, watch the floors click past: 22, 23, 24. Outside, the sweeping vista of Singapore’s neon nightscape flashes and sparkles. I clasp my hands at my waist;...
Dreams in Soft Focus
I am thirty five years old. Two candle flames dance, reflected in Linda's pupils. I brush her hair. "It's all right, Jonas. You're right. We needed the money." She kisses me the...
Snapshots of the End
I crossed the boundary line, entering familiar space as each breath of morning air drew knives into my lungs. The entire trip had taken three and a half days, less than I though...
Autophagy
A human can survive twenty-one days without food. A snake can survive months, a crocodile a year. I’ve heard some animals, in order to maintain the fuel source they need to cont...
God Is Dead
This will be the last time I speak to you. As we stand here, the sun beats down; we have not seen night for months now. I have to shield my eyes to speak to you all, to see you...
Ends Meat
There it was again – that smell. Barrick glanced at his father. He had his eyes closed but he probably wasn’t asleep, just too exhausted by hunger to keep them open. His cheeks...
The Outback
The sun rose over the mountains. Although, one could hardly call those the mountains. When an ordinary person hears this word, he imagines great stone formations with glaciers,...
Old World
"Grampa... Grampa...?" The old man's eyes slowly opened, revealing the misty gray remnants of a wise soldier that once was. His great grandson stood at his feet, both hands layi...
Escape from L.A.
Cuervo Jones to Snake Plissken: “You might have survived Cleveland. You might have escaped from New York. But this is L.A., vato . And you’re about to find out that this fucking...
Earth Day 2117
Joss McIntyre sat on his favorite knoll and looked down at The Camp spread below in the small steep-walled valley. Though early Spring, the tree under which he sat was fully lea...
Heat and Darkness
When the impending heatwave was announced, with a warning that people should plan to stay inside their homes for at least a week, my first thought was that this would be an oppo...
Ireland's Zombie Town
It was a freezing day in November, so cold that even the protestors had stayed at home for once. Stan Morrison watched from the atop the high platform as the trucks made their w...
All the Elders Orphans
War came in the summer like a heat wave. Moving through the country fast and hot but lasting only a season, it burned the land and scorched the lives of its inhabitants. All liv...
Drowned World
Elani sheltered under the branches of an old willow tree, hidden from sight, her aluminium canoe bobbing on the water. She sat, silent, wrapped from head to toe in thick plastic...
Desolation
They were called “The Good People”. They turned up at the settlement every six months, near as Arch could tell. They’d travel through the fiercest rainstorms, fight their way th...
The Watcher
He sat in the hide and watched the rain fall. He watched the big, broad leaved trees shudder with every raindrop, and he watched great evergreens weather the storm without ackno...
A Letter to 2499
Dear Future World, Future Humanity, if you are even there then! I’m writing these words to you from my home in Baffin Island in 2099, when climate change and man-made global war...
Warhead Saul's Last Leg
Interstate 90 was a shooting gallery. The winners were the gods who lived in the mountains and fortresses on either side, gods who watched over the world night and day through t...